A Great Tactic I Learned from David Silverman & One Reason I'm Proud to be an Atheist

A recent discussion here made me think of something I learned from American Atheist president David Silverman a few months ago. At the beginning of a discussion in a Church, with a veteran Christian apologist (I wish I could find a link) he ask the mostly Christian crowd to think about something. He asked them to think about what it would take for them to change their mind and decide there was no God. This was Dave's ace in the hole.

A little later in the discussion, Dave asked the apologist what his answer was, and the guy said, "Nothing." Nothing would change his mind. And the crowd cheered, obviously agreeing with him.

Knowing how to play his hand, Dave moved on, which made the apologist ask what it would take for Dave to change his mind and believe there was a God. It was really cool, because you could tell the whole crowd was expecting Dave to also say "Nothing" but he didn't. Instead he said that this was an important, fundamental difference they had. Dave said that there are literally thousands of things that would make him change his mind, and if he were to have any one of them occur, he would change his mind and believe there was a God.

That's the difference between us and them, folks. That's why it's laughable when the religious say that we have closed minds. Nothing could be further from the truth!

I decided to use this tactic when I got the chance, and so far I've been able to use it three times before today. Each time it played out exactly like it did with David Silverman.